Burns requested to be unlisted from the Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council. He and officials from the council said it was an oversight that he remained listed as a lobbyist for the group even after taking office at the commission.

Woodward might not have the name recognition of Tom Ryan, who filed a similar complaint against Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith, but he’s well known to the commissioners. They had to reverse their policy on smart meters earlier this year in part because of Woodward’s dogged challenge of that policy.

Smart meters use radio frequencies to transmit electricity usage to utilities for billing. Nearly all 1.1 million APS customers have them.

Woodward and tens of thousands of other APS customers don’t want the meters transmitting radio waves through their neighborhoods. He would like APS to remove them everywhere.

He and other opponents of smart meters were angered in December when the commission voted to allow APS to begin charging a $50 set-up fee for customers who want their smart meter replaced with a regular meter, plus $5 a month for the use of an analog meter that requires a reader to visit the home once a month. They decided the 20,000 people who never changed their meter didn’t have to pay the set-up fee.

Woodward challenged the fees, and the commission consulted with attorneys in April and rescinded it, deciding the matter needed to be decided in a full rate case. So it’s fair to say Woodward’s challenge is costing APS $100,000 a month in the fees the company would be collecting from people using traditional meters.

AZCENTRAL

APS smart-meter fees rescinded

Burns was uncharacteristically blunt when asked about that decision last week. Normally commissioners won’t discuss an upcoming decision so as to avoid the appearance of bias. But Burns said rescinding the fee shouldn’t be counted as much of a victory for Woodward.

“That’s not the end of the story,” Burns said. “It causes a delay, possibly, I but don’t know that it affects the final decision.”

On Sept. 18, the commission responded to a records request from the Checks and Balances Project with information that had not been provided, or had been reported differently, in previous records responses.

Woodward has seen that. He submitted a records request to the commission in December over documents related to smart meters. He also submitted a request to the Arizona Department of Health Services, which was involved in the smart-meter research.

When the commission responded to his request, Woodward said it omitted some e-mails between Jodi Jerich, commission executive director, and Will Humble, former ADHS director.

Because records requests are based on trust, Woodward didn’t know the e-mails were missing. He learned they existed when ADHS responded to his request and the e-mail string between Jerich and Humble was included.

Woodward and officials at the Checks and Balances Project said the inconsistencies give them concern that the commission might not be fulfilling its legal obligation to comply with records requests with all the relevant information they are seeking.

Most people who have requested public records have seen all or part of some records redacted or blacked out for various reasons, including attorney-client discussions and personal information not related to public responsibilities. But Woodward’s responses from the Corporation Commission also included several e-mails blacked out for what the commission’s attorney’s labeled “state of mind.”

“In the first public records request I ever made in my life, it looks like the ACC invented a whole new classification,” Woodward said.

Utility regulators as lobbyists. Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith’s case is unique because she continued to be listed as a lobbyist once in office. But it’s common for the people elected in Arizona to regulate utilities to have worked previously as lobbyists, or to become lobbyists once they leave the commission.

Other lobbyists who have served as utility regulators recently include:

Burns previously also was listed as a lobbyist for the University of Arizona from 2012-13.

Former Commissioner Gary Pierce was registered as a lobbyist from 2000-01 for the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona. Pierce was a commissioner from 2007-14. During Pierce’s time in office homebuilders were affected by decisions to charge for, then provide for free, line extensions to new properties.

Former Commissioner Brenda Burns, who served from 2011-14, worked as a lobbyist for a variety of organizations in the 2000s before taking office. Her registrations include Unocal, Southwest Cable Communications Association, Tucson Heart Hospital, Cendant Corp., Americans for Limited Government and others.

William Mundell, who served on the commission through 2008, was listed as a lobbyist for the Arizona Heritage Fund and the Chandler Regional Hospital into 2000, when he first was appointed and won re-election to the commission. Since his term he’s worked as a lobbyist for the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, where he was director until Gov. Doug Ducey replaced him this year.

Sandra Kennedy, who served one term through 2012, has been listed as a lobbyist for the Maricopa County NAACP since February.

Former Commissioner Jeff Hatch-Miller has been listed as a lobbyist for the Arizona Lottery, where he is executive director, since 2010. He served as commissioner from 2003-09.